How God Used Certification In My Life and Ministry-

When our children were younger, we lived in a small neighborhood, and periodically the fire department would test the fire hydrants – our kids thought it was awesome! Each month of Certification last year felt like I was taking in information as if drinking from that fire hydrant blasting massive amounts of water onto our old street. Being equipped to do a certain task or job certainly comes with God-given skills and strengths. But receiving specific training is essential to doing a job well, with God’s help. The PCA’s CDM Children’s Ministry Certification program was wind in my sails, challenging for my weaknesses, and encouraging to my soul and our children’s ministry.

God’s glory in ministry was on magnificent display every single month of Certification. Mrs. Sue Jakes started our year off with a bang walking us through “Heirs of the Covenant.” She said that our theology must direct our choices. Our focus is on God and His glory, not only meeting the needs of what might be fun with the kids. As with all things Presbyterian, our approach to Children’s Ministry must have purpose behind it. What is our why? It’s not to entertain or babysit or survive. I learned that the reason we get up and do our jobs as children’s ministry directors is to faithfully proclaim the Scriptures, to magnify God’s unmatched glory, show our children, volunteers, and families the beauty of Jesus, and walk humbly before Him each and every day.

“How firm a foundation, O saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He has said

Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?”

“How Firm a Foundation”

One huge point from Month 5 was that our curriculum must absolutely have sound doctrine, and this is a non-negotiable. We must consistently train our covenant children and volunteers how to think rightly about God with a Biblical worldview. The Book of Church Order even states that we are required to train and equip parents to teach God’s word and discipline their children. What a task, what an encouragement, what a challenge for us as children’s ministry directors and as parents ourselves. The fact that every single covenant member is a covenant parent still astounds me and thrills me.

Second, the effects of Certification on my family and personal life have been felt continually. Stephen Estock in month 3 said to serve with others and to recognize the giftings of others takes humility. The Lord was really kind to reveal my weaknesses and how to serve in spite of and strengthen them. He also said we are to grow in our gifts and to not rest in what we can do. The whole idea of being “self-aware” has changed the way I see myself, our family, and others. Romans 12:3 says “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Learning to be self- and others- aware has helped me to extend grace to others who may be struggling and unaware of how they are coming across to others. Ken Sande said “The better we know and follow God, the more we will know and discipline ourselves, which opens the way for us to better understand, relate to, and serve our neighbors.”

August’s theme for me was raising worshippers in our families and in our congregation. In our Worship Training Webinar, Ms. Becky Sinclair said, “Worship on earth is our calling, and it is our destiny for all of eternity.” We were challenged and encouraged that children are necessary parts of the body of Christ; they can worship God and participate in worship. When our children were 8, 6, 4, 2, and a newborn, we were in a very small family-integrated reformed Baptist church, and we were just trying to get through the service without spilling all the snacks and distracting every adult in the room. This quote rocked my world last August: Ms. Sinclair said, “The goal is to teach the child to worship, not to keep them quiet!” I want to help parents as they learn to disciple their children even through the worship service by creating an engaging Children’s Ministry Bulletin!

Last, as we rounded the corner to month 12, I got a little anxious about how I would successfully apply, implement and then periodically evaluate every aspect of our children’s ministry well and purposefully. With God’s help, each month can have a mini-focus as our own ministry’s programming continues. I have noticed that our nursery sometimes gets put on the backburner, and when Nursery month came in June during Certification, I was excited because I could finally focus in on what this class needed. July is now a planned time of reassessing our Policies and Procedures and planning our newly planned annual Volunteer Training. Frequently revisiting our children’s ministry and church’s vision will help to fight the temptation to lose vigor and purpose.

This job and calling of children’s ministry director is very humbling because it’s about what God is doing. One very loud, pronounced encouragement during certification was that we are receiving all of these wonderful, helpful, gospel-saturated ideas – but we can only implement them one at a time. I still haven’t made the children’s bulletin that I have been wanting to since August 2024, but I’m getting to it! One quote from our August webinar that still resonates in my soul was what Ms. Becky Sinclair said, “this is a spiritual battle. Satan is not happy about that.” And as Lisa Updike said, “we are unable, but the Holy Spirit is! He never fails. He is able when we aren’t. Pray. Pray. Pray.”